George Granville, Lord Lansdowne
George Granville (sometimes Grenville), 1st Baron Lansdowne (1667 - 30 Jan. 1735), was an English poet and playwright. Life Granville was the second son of Bernard Grenville or Granville, by his wife, Anne, daughter and heiress of Cuthbert Morley of Hornby, Yorkshire. (The name was variously spelt ‘Grenville’ and ‘Granville,’ more often the latter. The spelling ‘Greenvil’ is incorrect.) (Granville, Works, i. 508, note). He was educated in France by Sir William Ellis, a pupil of Busby, and in 1677 entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Before he was 12 he recited some of his own English verses to the Duchess of York on her visit to the university, and for some other youthful verses obtained the praise of Waller. He was admitted to the degree of M.A. in 1679 (Cantabrig. Grad.).Wroth, 415. He in vain petitioned his father for leave to join the royal forces against Monmouth, and in 1688 (Letter to Bernard Granville, 6 Oct.) being now "older by three years," and thinking it "glorious at any age to die for one's country," begged to be presented to James II as a defender of his sacred person. During the reign of William III "he is supposed to have lived in litterary retirement" (Johnson, Life of Granville), addressing amorous verses to "Myra" or "Mira" (Frances Brudenell, countess of Newburgh), and writing his plays. , which are as follows: 1. ‘She Gallants,’ a comedy, first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1696 (also Drury Lane 13 March and 5 April 1746), and published in 1696, 4to, and later editions. Granville (Works, 1732, ii.) revised it and changed the name to ‘Once a Lover and always a Lover.’ Downes says that the play was ‘extraordinary witty and well-acted,’ but offended some ladies ‘who set up for chastity, and it made its exit’ (see Genest, ii. 88, 89). 2. ‘Heroick Love,’ a tragedy, first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1698 (also Drury Lane 19 March 1712; 21 Oct. 1725; 18 March 1766), and published London 1698, 4to. Downes says ‘the play was well acted and mightily pleased the Court and City’ (Genest, ii. 150). Dryden wrote his verses "To Mr. Granville on his excellent tragedy called Heroic Love." 3. ‘The Jew of Venice,’ a poor adaptation of Shakespeare's ‘Merchant of Venice’ (for details see Genest, ii. 243-5), first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1701 (afterwards at Drury Lane 3 Feb. 1710, Lincoln's Inn Fields 16 May 1717, Covent Garden 11 Feb. 1735), and published 1701, 4to. The profits of the representation were given to Dryden's son. Granville wrote a short masque called ‘Peleus and Thetis,’ to accompany the play. 4. ‘The British Enchanters,’ an opera, first acted at the Haymarket 21 Feb. 1706 (afterwards at Haymarket 22 March 1707: Genest, ii. 350), and published 1710, 8vo. According to Granville, Betterton having seen it by chance ‘begg'd it for the stage,’ and it had ‘an uninterrupted run of at least forty days.’ The epilogue was by Addison. At the accession of Queen Anne (1702) Granville entered public life. In 1702 he became M.P. for Fowey, and about this time his fortune, previously very small, was increased by bequests from his father and his uncle, the Earl of Bath, and (in 1706) by the inheritance of his elder brother, Sir Bevil Granville, governor of Barbados. About 1702 he translated the second and third Olynthian Orations, with the design (says Johnson) of "turning the thunder of Demosthenes upon the head of Lewis French king," (See Several Orations englished by several hands, 1702, 12mo; Several Orations of Demosthenes, 1744, 12mo; and Granville's Works, ed. 1732, vol. i). In 1710 he was elected for the borough of Helston and for the county of Cornwall, and chose the latter seat. On 29 Sept, 1710 he succeeded Walpole as secretary of war. On 30 Dec. 1711 he was created a peer of Great Britain with the title of Lord Lansdowne, Baron of Bideford, Devon; 11 other peers were, at the suggestion of the Earl of Oxford, created at the same time. In 1712 Granville (Lord Lansdowne) was appointed comptroller of the household and a privy councillor. In 1713 he was advanced to be treasurer of the household.Wroth, 416. At the accession of George I he was out of favour, and on 11 October 1714 was removed from his post of treasurer. He protested against the bill for attainting Ormond and Bolingbroke, and there is some reason to suppose that he was concerned in a scheme for a rising in Cornwall to help the Pretender (A full and authentick Narrative of the ... Invasion, London, T. Roberts, 1715). He was confined in the Tower as a suspected person from 26 September 1715 till 8 February 1717. On the window of his prison he inscribed his name and four lines of verse (Walpole, Roy. and Noble Authors, iv. 155). In 1717 he was restored to his seat in parliament. He now settled at Longleat, then in possession of his wife's family. In 1719 he delivered an animated speech against the repeal of the Bill to prevent Occasional Conformity (see Granville, Works, ed. 1732). In 1722 he went abroad, perhaps on account of diminished means, his expenditure being always lavish, or for political reasons. He lived at Paris for 10 years. , and there wrote: 1. ‘A Vindication of General Monk’ (against Burnet and Echard). 2. ‘A Vindication Clarendon and Echard of Sir Richard Granville’ {Charles I's general and Lansdowne's ancestor). The ‘Vindications’ were published in Granville's ‘Works,’ 1732, vol. i. They were answered by Oldmixon in ‘Reflexions,’ &c., and defended in Granville's ‘Letter to the Author of Reflexions,’ &c., London, 1732, 4to. In 1732 Granville returned to England, and published a revised and finely printed edition of his complete works (The Genuine Works in Verse and Prose of G.G. Lord Lansdowne, 2 vols., London, 1732, 4to; another ed., 3 vols., London, 1736, 12mo). Before this edition there had appeared ‘A Collection of Poems ... by Mr. Granville,’ 1701, 8vo ; ‘A New Miscellany of Original Poems ... by Mr. G.’, 1701, 8vo; and ‘Poems upon several occasions’ (by G. G.), London, 1712, 8vo; 1716, 12mo; 1721, 12mo; 1726, 12mo). Granville's poems have been included in the collection for which Dr. Johnson wrote his Lives, and in the collections of T. Bell (vol. lvi.), R. Anderson (vol. vii.), A.Chalmers (vol, xi.), T. Park (selection), and E. Sanford (selection). Pope (Pastorals, "Spring," l. 46) alludes to "Waller's strains, or Granville's moving lays," and Granville speaks of "Mira herself touch'd with the moving song" (Works, i. 87). But Granville's poems are anything but moving, and there is little to add to Johnson's criticism (Life of Granville) that "he had no ambition above the imitation of Waller, of whom he has copied the faults, and very little more." Johnson praises his prologues and epilogues, and considers the British Enchanters by "far the best of his works." Granville was an early patron of Pope. He invited (Granville, Works, i. 437) a friend to his lodgings to meet Wycherley, who would bring with him "a young poet newly inspired" — "his name is Pope, he is not above seventeen or eighteen years of age, and promises miracles." Granville commended the "Pastorals"’ when in manuscript (cf. ‘Spring,’ l. 46). He is said (Spense, quoted in Elwin's Pope, i. 324) to have "insisted" on Pope's publishing Windsor Forest, and probably suggested the eulogy of the ‘Peace’ at the end of that poem. Pope dedicated it (1713) to him, and in it spoke of "Surrey, the Granville of a former age’ (l. 292; cp. lines 5, 6). Much later in life (1735) Pope (Ep. to Arbuthnot, ll. 135-6) wrote the couplet: :But why then publish? Granville the polite, :And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write. In 1732 Granville presented a copy of his Works to Queen Caroline, by whom he was kindly received; but he took no further part in public affairs, and died in Hanover Square, London. He was buried on 3 February 1735 in a vault in the chancel of St. Clement Danes, London. His wife, who had died a few days before him, was buried in the same vault. His niece, Mary Granville (Mrs. Delany), describes him as polite and good-natured. He is the "Alcander" of her Autobiography Delany, Mary . Some of Granville's letters to her and to other members of his family have been printed in the Autobiography, &c.. There is a portrait of Granville, engraved "from a drawing" in Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors (Park), iv. 154, and one, from a miniature in the possession (1861) of Bernard Granville, is engraved in Mrs. Delany's Autobiography, &c., i. 418. Granville married in 1711 Mary, daughter of Edward Villiers, earl of Jersey, widow of Thomas Thynne, who, according to Mrs. Delany, was very handsome and loved admiration. They had 4 daughters, of whom Anne, the eldest, and Elizabeth, the youngest, died unmarried. Mary, the second daughter (d. 1735), married William Graham of Platten, near Drogheda. Grace, the third (d. 1769), married T. Foley of Whitley (created Baron Foley 1776), and had children.Wroth, 417. Granville had no male issue, and his title became extinct. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 17, 2017. Notes External links ;Poems *George Granville at PoemHunter ("To the King") *George, Baron Lansdowne Granville at Poetry Nook (94 poems) ;About * Granville, George Category:1666 births Category:1735 deaths Granville, George Granville, George Granville, George Granville, George Granville, George Category:Members of the Privy Council of England Category:Barons in the Peerage of Great Britain Category:Dukes of Albemarle Category:Dukes in the Jacobite peerage Category:Peers created by James Francis Edward Stuart Category:Cornish Jacobites Category:English Jacobites Granville, George Category:Treasurers of the Household Category:English MPs 1702–05 Category:English MPs 1705–07 George Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:English dramatists and playwrights